When you talk to former workers (many/most/all of which were laid off), what kind of stories do you expect to get? Salacious, gossipy, rumor-laden negativity. I'm an employer myself and have very little turnover for a company of my size. But I've had to terminate employment for several people over the years for various reasons, all of which were due directly that to that person's actions. In some of those cases, the former employees saved no breath in spreading fales rumors, lies, threatening to sue or contact the BBB.

Safety violations are an entirely different matter all together. And obviously a lot of things are overlooked by the employees in their pursuit of higher wages (ie "piece-work). But regardless, I can provide safety training, safety gear, drug testing, etc., but none of that stops a worker from smoking a joint before coming to work or refusing to wear the safety gear. Many times, an incident can occur before management is made aware of this and make corrective action. All employees share a common duty to report safety concerns and employee drug use.

I'm sure it's only a minor bump in the road for Warren Buffet (he owns FR and others) as well as BNSF railroad and countless other business ventures.

My take on the RV industry as a whole is, until they start getting away from the 'piece work' attitude, the quality will continue to suffer. Piece work and the incentive to produce for compensation and quality don't marry very well and the consumer suffers in the end.

Far as the drug culture goes, that is across the board in every industry. Drug use is ignored by the automakers as well. Ford. FCA and GM all have issues but tend to ignore them in favor of production. If the automakers pushed substance abuse testing (random sampling), half of their workforce would not be working.

I do have to say that, in general, Forest River products are a problem, a problem to consumers. Having said that, I have one and I consider myself extremely lucky that mine has been issue free for the last 4 years. Most people are not so lucky and it's a real shame considering the cost of an RV, that they are built as shoddy as they are.

WTP-GC wrote:When you talk to former workers (many/most/all of which were laid off), what kind of stories do you expect to get? Salacious, gossipy, rumor-laden negativity. I'm an employer myself and have very little turnover for a company of my size. But I've had to terminate employment for several people over the years for various reasons, all of which were due directly that to that person's actions. In some of those cases, the former employees saved no breath in spreading fales rumors, lies, threatening to sue or contact the BBB.

Safety violations are an entirely different matter all together. And obviously a lot of things are overlooked by the employees in their pursuit of higher wages (ie "piece-work). But regardless, I can provide safety training, safety gear, drug testing, etc., but none of that stops a worker from smoking a joint before coming to work or refusing to wear the safety gear. Many times, an incident can occur before management is made aware of this and make corrective action. All employees share a common duty to report safety concerns and employee drug use.